Life Changes

Ever since I went on maternity leave my husband took over our financial obligations i.e. from the electricity bill to water bill to savings and investments. Well it was a relief that I have unloaded those things from my shoulders but I do not want the fact that I am not tracking everything. He is not tracking anything as well. What a big HA HA! But there’s nothing to worry. According to my intelligent guestimate we are still on track and our expenses are still way under our income.

The biggest expenses that we have now are the vaccines that our child needs. Every visit to his pediatrician means a few thousand bucks. I just wish that our place has this reliable Health Center where we can get free vaccines and check-ups. But no, we do not have that here. So we have to go all the way to The Medical City for our child’s medical needs.

Caring for a child is much more challenging than my regular office work. First few months were stressful. It was draining. And it may ruin relationship with the husband if bond is not that strong. I am super lucky that my husband lets me choose the way I want to raise our child i.e. how many years I’ll be breastfeeding our child, what food should he eat on his sixth month, what toys should he play with, etc.

I really did not care much about the food we eat when there were just the two of us. I just thought, “kung saan makakatipid at nakakabusog oks na.” But everything changes from the time I became pregnant up until today. I have to consider salt and sugar intake and all the nutrients that goes in our body. I became an avid fan of sinabawang gulay, tinolang manok, fresh fruits and vegetables. My weekly meal plan would never be complete without vegetables. I also noticed that my stress level goes up whenever the greens are missing from our plate. So I always include it in our meal. The husband has already told me to at least cook something different from time to time. (Sawa na sa sinabawan. Haha!) Below is a sample of what I have cooked differently.

Salmon with Creamy Mushroom and Malunggay Sauce

Few weeks from now we will be feeding our child his first solid food. Yay! I have already told my husband that (as much as possible) we will follow the TamangKAIN (Tamang Kid and Infant Nutrition) way wherein 6 month-old babies are fed mashed fruits and vegetables with breast milk on the first few months then transition to normal solids. I will explain more on this on another post. What’s important today is that we have a clear picture of what to feed and what not to feed our child. I also told him that we will only feed our child naturally grown foods here in the Philippines because aside from they are cheap, they are actually the produce we need that suits our climate. Move over Cerelac, Gerber and Marie Biscuit.

Anyway, those are the few changes we had recently. We are anticipating more to come.

Till next time. ^_^

Life with a Baby: The First 3 Months

It has been a few months since my last update. And yes, we have given birth to a lovely baby boy that is why our world was put upside down. Life lately was like a roller coaster ride. There were sleepless nights (oh sleepless nights), breastfeeding related stresses, no nanny problems etc etc.

The first month was rough. We had to do it all by ourselves. We really didn’t know how to sooth a crying baby. We just figured out how to change nappies in the hospital. My husband had a crash course on how to bathe our baby. And I had a crash course on how to properly breastfeed my child. I just wish we were able to attend the breastfeeding seminar first. But experience is always the best teacher. We had “lungad” issues to which I was afraid we had GERD. But through the help of a breastfeeding peer counselor we were able to address the issue. I was able to keep my calm and became accustomed to it. We still have “lungad” problems sometimes but it has become bearable.

Our baby’s birth weight was 6lbs and 1 ounce. He weighed 6lbs and 2 ounces after 2 weeks. I don’t know if I was just me (or the mother in me) but our pediatrician insinuated that “maybe” he is not getting enough milk. [We are exclusively breastfeeding so you could just imagine how negative it was to hear something like that from his pediatrician.] To the extent that she asked me if I have milk. I said I have milk. She asked me to pump to know how much milk our baby is getting. I was insulted but I kept my cool. We were just starting our breastfeeding journey then and to insinuate that I don’t have enough milk for my child is just selfish practice.

To satisfy our child’s first pedia, I tried to pump milk from my breast. I got a little depressed because I could only express 1-2 oz in one session. That made me uncomfortable thinking that I am not providing enough for my baby. I drank 4-5 liters of water and popped 3 malunggay capsules each day to boost my supply and my confidence. Later I found out (from lurking in Breastfeeding Pinays facebook page) that the amount of milk I express is NOT equivalent to the amount of milk my baby is getting. Babies are better at sucking milk than any breast pump in the market. And it is NOT recommended to express milk on the first 6 weeks because it may cause oversupply, plugged ducts and worse mastitis.

We continued with our baby’s first vaccine with his first pedia but actively sought help from friends who could recommend a true breastfeeding advocate pediatrician. Thank God Mica dear suggested her son’s pediatrician to us. We transferred to Dra. Elizabeth on our second vaccine and we were happy because she is very accommodating and really takes time to discuss things with her patients. She really responds well to our questions and I think she really cares for her patients. I’m so glad we found a great one.

Lesson learned: DO NOT be afraid to breastfeed. All women have milk supply that is ample for her child.

Here are a few tips I gathered from exclusively breastfeeding our son:

1.  Milk will not come out dripping on the first few days. Mature milk will come on th 3^rd -5^th day. SO RELAX.
2. Baby is getting the colostrum on his first few days. (While mature milk is not yet there.) Colostrum is the most nutritious milk the baby can get from his mother so JUST LATCH ON.
3. Breastfed babies pee more than 5 times and may poop every after feeding. Remember to count wet and soiled nappies and contact your pediatrician when you noticed that the baby is not peeing or pooping as much. This is NOT because mothers don’t have enough milk. It may be that the latch is wrong and other factors.
4. Forget the clock and feed on demand. If the baby wants to latch for hours and hours then let him be. Our breasts are not just his source of food. It is also the source of his comfort.
5. The first few weeks of breastfeeding are never easy. But it is doable. Just have the firm decision to breastfeed your baby.

Our child’s first 3 months progress is good. He is happy, gaining weight and eager to learn new things every day. But he still sleeps on my chest each single night. There was never a time when he slept on the bed on his own. So I had to sacrifice and carry him through the night. Well I hope he learns to sleep on his back [during the night] soon. I am just enjoying our bonding moment till it last.

As I write this our little boy is enjoying his crib mobile and is about to sleep. I hope I get to write our first time parents experiences soon.

Till next time. J

What’s up?

It has been a month since I updated my blog and I’m really blaming it on the laziness I feel every single day. I felt I have nothing to update because it is just the start of the year. But then I told myself I better get into blogging again because this will be my online diary. Nope, I will not be writing everything here. Only the important events in our lives.

January has been tough. I am juggling a bunch of things every day. From the hectic schedule at work, doing every day chores in our house, preparing our baby needs (and my needs), learning how to bake, reading books and everything else that needs my attention.

I am already in my 35^th week of pregnancy and every day is a challenge. I’ve been experiencing lower back pain, difficulty in walking because of the extra weight, going to the comfort room more often and having difficulty in breathing because of heart burn. Sometimes I wake up early morning because of leg cramps – to which I already learned the basic first aid. P.S. Leg cramps only happen every time my OB changes my vitamins. So far I experienced leg cramps only thrice.

I am now controlling my carbohydrates intake so that it will be easier for me to give birth. As much as possible I am eating less than a cup of rice each meal. Sometimes I go for 1 cup because the baby inside seems very hungry. >.<

I have also purchased several modern cloth diapers from a friend. I am really determined to go full time on cloth nappying because of the potential savings it can give to us. The initial cost may be plentiful but when you compute total expenses from doing cloth nappying compared to disposable diapers, the difference will be more than double. I just hope my husband is into it also. I’ll try to convince him on the first few months.

Cloth diapers

I’ve been doing bad in terms of our finances. Electric bill and water bill went up, food/misc expenses also went over and beyond our budget. Thanks to our low leisure and car expenditure we were able to save 1000Php from the original planned expenses. I think I need to tweak things a little bit here to stay in our budget for each category. Tipid tipid!

Jan-15
		Planned	Actual	Savings
household	electric bill	1000	1020	-20
	water bill	300	328	-28
	internet	1190	1190	0
	food/misc	8000	8892.82	-892.82
	leisure	2000	699	1301
	car expenditure	5000	4260.77	739.23
TOTAL		17490	16390.59	1099.41

But I am proud to say that we were able to follow our investment plans for the month of January. I convinced husband to contribute much more this year to beef up our retirement fund. In return, I am taking care of the educational fund of our child to be. (I’ve been saving for our child’s education even before we actually have one. Forward thinking eh!)

I think that’s it for January update. I hope I have more time to compose more blogs on the coming days.

Till next time.

In Review: 2014 Food Expenses

I was reviewing our 2014 expenses (well basically those months that I was very diligent in recording how much we spent) and I realized that we are most of the time above our food/grocery budget. To further understand let me show you the actual expenses we incurred for the months of June to December 2014.

June 2014 Summary
		Planned	Actual	Surplus
household	electric bill	1000	1610.63	-610.63
	water bill	300	215.92	84.08
	internet and cable	1190	1190	0
	food/grocery	6000	8848.71	-2848.71
	leisure	2000	0	2000
	Car Expenditure	5000	3000	2000
	TOTAL	15490	14865.26	624.74
July 2014 Summary
		Planned	Actual	Surplus
household	electric bill	1000	708.37	291.63
	water bill	300	165	135
	internet and cable	1190	1190	0
	food/grocery	6000	7872.5	-1872.5
	leisure	2000	1400	600
	Car Expenditure	5000	2300	2700
	TOTAL	15490	13635.87	1854.13
August 2014 Summary
		Planned	Actual	Surplus
household	electric bill	1000	1282	-282
	water bill	300	160	140
	internet and cable	1190	1190
	food/grocery	6000	7900.13	-1900.13
	leisure	2000	1500	500
	Car Expenditure	5000	4710	290
	TOTAL	15490	16742.13	-1252.13
September 2014 Summary
		Planned	Actual	Surplus
household	electric bill	1000	1153.59	-153.59
	water bill	300	151	149
	internet and cable	1190	1190	0
	food/grocery	6000	8793.75	-2793.75
	leisure	2000	0	2000
	Car Expenditure	5000	2000	3000
	TOTAL	15490	13288.34	2201.66
October 2014 Summary
		Planned	Actual	Surplus
household	electric bill	1000
	water bill	300	167.22	132.78
	internet and cable	1190	1190	0
	food/grocery	6000	9589.09	-3589.09
	leisure	2000	2000	0
	Car Expenditure	5000	4085.42	914.58
	TOTAL	15490	17031.73	-2541.73
November 2014 Summary
		Planned	Actual	Surplus
household	electric bill	1000	1159.62	-159.62
	water bill	300	183.46	116.54
	internet and cable	1190	1190	0
	food/grocery	6000	7311.5	-1311.5
	leisure	2000
	Car Expenditure	5000	3889.37	1110.63
	TOTAL	15490	13733.95	-243.95
December 2014 Summary
		Planned	Actual	Surplus
household	electric bill	1000	1062.15	-62.15
	water bill	300	183.46	116.54
	internet and cable	1190	1190	0
	food/grocery	6000	6593.69	-593.69
	leisure	2000	0	2000
	Car Expenditure	5000	4573	427
	TOTAL	15490	13602.3	1887.7

I don’t know if 6000Php is really NOT enough for 2 people (and 2 dogs) in a month. Maybe because we were just cooking what we want and offsetting our food/grocery expenses with our other expenses. As you can see in our summary sometimes we were within budget sometimes we were beyond our budget.

So I talked to my husband about this and we both agreed that we should have a weekly menu to further track our food expenses. I have created one last night for the following week. 

Please pardon the hand writing ^_^

I posted the menu on our fridge hoping that my husband will follow it diligently. 

Hope this method helps! ^_^